Final post

This will be my final thought of the course "Theory and Method for Media Technology" in the first part will explain what I learned during the course and in the second part I will focus my thoughts on the different methods to answer complex research questions. The comments i have made during the course are in a different post: Comments

Part I: Reflection about the course “Theory and Method for Media Technology”

At the start of the course, I was not quite sure what kind of knowledge I will acquire, I thought would just learn and memorize different difficult methods and theories, but the knowledge I gained was much deeper than that. After completing the course I can say that I have a deeper understanding of fundamental theories and methods for any type of research in Media Technology and I have the capacity to use them in any research I will form part of.  

Particularly I think the first part of the course was the most difficult to understand, since we work with philosophical articles and concepts. Previously I had never had to read about these topics, in all my academic and professional background I did not delve into these topics because I've always focused on more technical and scientific issues. With the first articles I read I began to feel very sceptical about the course and did not understand the relationship of this content with my studies in Media Technology. But after the first seminar it all started to make sense and I think the most important reason for understanding these topics is that they allow you to think differently and take a fresh look at everything and even more a different perspective of the world and all around us.

Among the most important things we deal with in this part of the course was to understand what knowledge is, a term we use in our everyday conversations without understanding the true meaning of the word. It is a complex term and it is important to understand that there are different types of knowledge that depend on the way we perceive the "objects". It was an interesting topic and allowed us to start questioning everything around us and also to have different perspectives on the same topic. Other philosophical topics were discussed as was the term nominalism and the period of enlightenment, understanding its meaning, advantages and disadvantages. It is amazing to stop and think about how over the years the insatiable quest for knowledge has allowed humanity to progress and become as we know it today with its various societies and cultures.

Then the themes stop dealing with philosophical topics but we keep relating the knowledge we acquire early weeks. This part of the course focused on the understanding of what a theory is, and different research methodologies. Understanding and defining what is theory is not an easy task and even was necessary to understand what is not. One important thing I learned is that in a theory, its strength is more related to the amount of phenomena’s it can explain, which it can be measured by its ability to make predictions that can be right or wrong.  Another important and not less complex point was understanding the difference and relationship between a theory and a hypothesis and further understand the importance for any research of spending more time in the definition of the hypothesis or question we want to solve than in the solution the problem. Having the right foundation of any study, to find the solutions of the problem results are ​​easier and more reliable. Once this foundation has come into play the different methods and strategies to solve a problem, which were the subject of the following topics covered in the course. There are various research methods and for these subjects we had a deep study about the qualitative and quantitative methods and we understood the benefits and drawbacks of each. Also learned how these methods can complement and can be used in the same research. Finally we deepen our knowledge in other research method: case study; a method that is very different from the previous ones and is very useful for certain types of research.

Part II: Combining different methods

Combine different methods to answer complex questions can be very beneficial as long as you have a good knowledge of these methods and use the most appropriate. However, before start thinking about what methods are most feasible, is very important to have a question that truly represents the problem and defined the best possible way. As I mentioned earlier the key to performing any type of research, as trivial as seems, is to have a question that really represents the problem. The best way to define a question is thinking about the problem from different perspectives and even more, going beyond of what is in front of us. It is really important to have in mind that when the problem has been defined properly, then the solution will be easier and more reliable. Defining the right problem including the hypothesis includes identifying and defining theories underlying our ideas and if possible would be a new theory after extensive research on the problem.

Once we have all the definition of the problem we want to solve, it's time to select the most appropriate methods. Often certain types of methods are expected to achieve the solution without thinking about doing a combination of them or sometimes even several types of methods will be used without knowing the feasibility they have in front of the particular problem. Select the methods that are most convenient means also gather the data needed to conduct the study. The data range from very simple data to a large and complex amount of data, selecting the most appropriate strategy is very important to conduct any study. Among the topics the course, we also devote some time to understand different types of surveys and questionnaires, understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each, and understanding the importance of evaluating such strategies always thinking about different points of view and not only from the standpoint of researcher. You need to keep in mind that the goal is to select the method of data collection more efficient that provide you the most useful information for your study.

There is no problem in using different methods to conduct an investigation as long as the reasons why you are using are clear, it is not about “more methods, better results”. For example it is important to note that using qualitative methods will allow an in-depth study focused on some problem understanding "Why" of a phenomenon, while if you need "What?" of the same phenomenon is necessary to use quantitative methods that allow you to analyze the results in a statistical domain. Having this kind of ideas, you will certainly achieve more robust and reliable results. When you are facing a very complex problem there are several methods that are based on the combination of various methods, for example, you can use "triangulation", this method is not only to combine different quantitative and qualitative methods but also to combine different theories and research according to the complexity of the phenomenon to be studied. This method allows different research methods take place concurrently obtaining data and information that later would be analysed and compared each other. Making a research is dedication and willingness to carry out any particular study especially if it is a complex problem.

Finally there are other types of research strategies that are also very useful for certain types of studies: case studies. This method differs from the above mentioned that they do not start from a hypothesis to be studied, this strategy begin from a known problem but there is no certainty about  the kind of results gained after conducting the study. A case study provides you with a deep understanding of a certain phenomenon but requires a lot of dedication and time for collection and subsequent analysis of the data.

The course turned out much better than I initially expected and I understand the importance of understanding all this themes, particularly I am sure I got the skills to meet the objectives of the course, and I am eager to apply all this knowledge while performing my thesis, there is no doubt that I am able to make an investigation. Finally thanks to my fellow students with whom we had interesting discussions at seminars and through different blogs and of course thanks to the teachers who took part in different activities during the course.